This invention relates to toys and more particularly to toys which are capable of collapsing or folding into a relatively planar configuration and which tend to return elastically to their operational/modeled configuration.
Toy cars are not relatively new to the toy industry. Manufacturers of such toy car brands as Match Box(copyright), Racing Champions(copyright), and Hot Wheels(copyright) have been making die cast metal toys for many years. As children began collecting these toy cars the introduction of accessory items spawned into the industry. Playsets and carrying cases provided children with the ability to play with numerous cars and to transport these cars from one place to another. While individually, the toy cars are relatively small, any collection of toy cars, playsets and carrying cases may be extremely bulky.
The introduction of miniature toy cars, such as those manufactured by the makers of Micro Machines(copyright), may have been one attempt to solve this problem. With the advent of miniature toys, smaller playsets and carrying cases have been introduced into the toy industry. Although these miniature toys have the same features as normal die cast toys, they are fundamentally much smaller than the normal toys. Furthermore, only miniature toys are functionally fitted to be used in conjunction with these miniature playsets and carrying cases. Larger, normal sized toys are not properly formed for miniature playsets and are not capable of being stored in miniature carrying cases.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide toys, especially toy cars that are similarly sized to other toys but capable of being made compact when being transported. It is a further object of the present invention to provide full size playsets, playsets designed for normal sized die cast toys, but capable of being made compact when not in use. It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide carrying cases that are compact and are capable of transporting the compact cars.
Similar products, which consist of collapsible playsets and toys, fundamentally lack the ability to automatically return to an operational or modeled configuration. These collapsible playsets and toys require a user to assemble or continually unfold and fold the playsets and toys. It is therefore another object of the present invention to provide collapsible toys and playsets which are capable of collapsing by applying a downwardly force and automatically returning to their operational/modeled configuration when the downwardly force is removed.
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a collapsible toy car including a front top portion, a rear top portion, and two side portions. The front top portion is pivotally attached to the rear top portion via a hinging means. The two side portions are also pivotally attached to the front and rear top portion via a front and rear pivot assembly means. When assembled the front, rear, and two side portions form an upright, operational/modeled configuration. When a force is applied downwardly upon the collapsible toy the front, rear and two side portions collapse forming a substantially planar, collapsed configuration.
In the preferred embodiment, the hinging means consists of a protruding neck member in the rear top portion, a notch in the front top portion and a compression pin. The compression pin fits into a bore in the protruding neck member and fastens to a pair of opposing apertures in the notch, thus forming a hinging pivot pin between the front top portion and the rear top portion.
The front and rear pivot assembly means preferably consists of a torsion spring attached to each end of a U-shaped pivot pin. The middle section of the U-shaped pivot pin attaches to either the front or rear top portion, while the legs of the U-shaped pivot pin are fastened to the side portions, respectively. The side portions rotate about the U-shaped pivot pin against a rotational force exerted by the torsion springs. The torsion springs, continuously exerting the rotational force against the side portions, tend to return the toy elastically to its operational configuration.
In another embodiment of the present invention, a latching means is employed to retain the toy in its collapsed configuration, when the downwardly force is removed. The latching means may be released by depressing a releasing means. Once the latching means is released, the collapsible car may elastically return to its operational configuration. While in the preferred embodiment toy cars are referred to the invention can be employed with other types of vehicles and is not limited to cars.
Numerous other advantages and features of the invention will become readily apparent from the following detailed description of the invention and the embodiments thereof, from the claims, and from the accompanying drawings.